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Here is a photo of the face of the speedometer. It does have the 2 lights at the bottom. Also attached is another photo of the rear. The cable marked "Y" does hang down under the waist roll, is attached to the steering bracket. and turning it does reset to trip. The one marked "X" hangs down under and behind the dash and is the mystery cable. The body is mostly a Series I. The engine and some other parts are Series V.The second cable is the cable to reset the trip odometer on a series 1 or 2. It comes down and turns under the dash waist roll and is clamped to the bracket that secures the steering column. What you have is an early speedometer housing that may have been altered to use the inner components of a later speedometer with an opening cut to allow the use of the later trip odometer reset arm. This housing does have the indicator light sockets and wiring for an early speedometer. Do you have a photo of the face of the speedometer? If it has two lights at the bottom of the face with one on the left labeled indicator and the one on the right labeled ignition then you have an early speedo face. What series car do you have?
When I first got the car the needle swung wildly. That is why I replaced the cable. Now it holds steady just at the wrong speed. The speedometer needle does not move until the car reaches 10 MPH.Woody, jack the rear wheels up and turn the propshaft and count the revolutions vs wheels. See if you are getting more than 4 turns or less than 4 turns. ( more is a 4.22:1 diff less will be the 3.89:1)
That will tell if you have a mismatched Speedo.
As discussed earlier as well could also be a mismatch of the little speedo drive gears in the trans.
It is odd though that you are basically getting to 20mph before needle moves.
Is the needle steady?
Here is a photo of the face of the speedometer. It does have the 2 lights at the bottom. Also attached is another photo of the rear. The cable marked "Y" does hang down under the waist roll, is attached to the steering bracket. and turning it does reset to trip. The one marked "X" hangs down under and behind the dash and is the mystery cable. The body is mostly a Series I. The engine and some other parts are Series V.
Looking more closely at the trip odometer area in your photo, it looks like some metal was cut out by hand. And the trip odometer has a yellow digit. A series 1 speedo would have a red digit. The series 4 & 5 speedos have yellow digits in the trip odometer. The opening probably had to be enlarged because the digits on the later speedo took up more space.
View attachment 18811
A series 1 speedo looks like this:
View attachment 18812
The series 4 standard speedo was 1000 revs per mile. Only a 2% difference from 1020.
The series 5 standard speedo was 1020 revs per mile, same as series 1.
So you can try to fix the speedo you have, or consider looking for a correct speedo (after you confirm the gearbox and differential you have).
There's a chance the speedo needle weight from an earlier speedometer is heavier than the speedo needle from a series 4 or 5 speedo. I think that could account for the speedo consistently reading low by 10 mph or so.
Mike